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Geographical Index > Canada > British Columbia > Report # 4766
 
Report # 4766  (Class B)
Submitted by witness on Tuesday, August 6, 2002.
Mother and child hear roar while lost on Read Island

YEAR: 1996

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: June

DATE: n/k

PROVINCE: British Columbia

COUNTRY: Canada

LOCATION DETAILS: North west area of Read Island approx 30 metres(?) from the shore line.

NEAREST TOWN: Campbell River

NEAREST ROAD: logging roads

OBSERVED: I would like to share with you an experience I had in the summer of 1996 that was most unusual. I am hesitant to suggest that my encounter was indeed a sasquatch; (although I am open to the possibility of their existing, I would personally require visual evidence of my own to feel certain.)

In the summer of 1996 I became slightly lost while hiking with my then 4yr old son on Read Island (a non-ferry serviced gulf Island off the coast of British Columbia's Vancouver Island) I left the wooded path and decided to walk along an old logging road thinking that if I followed it long enough in any one direction I would eventually reorientate and find our camp. The island is not that large. We stopped at the roadside to pick some wild berries- it was approx. 2pm. and I heard what sounded quite distinctly like a hiker walking swiftly through the thick brush approaching behind the thicket of berries. Being lost I called out "Hello!" "Hello" feeling relieved that I was about to encounter another person. The footsteps stopped quite suddenly after I called out. I had the strange sensation of being watched. The footsteps began again but slower. I called out again but became anxious becasue it sounded as though whoever it was "sneaking up" on me- I was scared it was some hermit freak. I felt very vulnerable and started to back away from the berry bushes into the middle of the road. Then whatever it was behind those bushes emitted a surreal noise that I find difficult to describe but cannot forget. It was a VERY loud, deep growl that became almost a roar. I grabbed my son's hand and ran as fast as we both could. It is my understanding that occasionally a bear will swim onto the islands, the noise of whatever it was moving through the brush did not seem like the big, slow noises bears make. I've had bears wander into my camp before and you can usually really hear them coming if the brush is thick.
Anyways, there it is. I would prefer not to have my name on your site however you may feel free to contact me.

OTHER WITNESSES: My son who was 4yrs old. The experience was quite traumatic at the time and he now claims to not remember.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: approx 2pm, sunny warm

ENVIRONMENT: Mixed wooded areas and thick brush (berry thickets, tall grasses etc) near an old logging road